Murray, Durnford Combine for 33 As Owls Go To 2-0 at Home

KEENE, N.H. – Sophomores Kenzie Durnford and Aryanna Murray combined to shoot 12-for-22 from the floor and 5-for-9 from three-point range in the second half as the Keene State College women's basketball team fended off Rivier University 71-61 in non-conference action Tuesday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.

Records

• Keene State:  2-3
• Rivier:  3-4

How It Happened
In a bit of a strange contest that saw the teams combine for 33 first half points and then 99 second half points, it was the Owls who came away with their second win of the season, shooting 9-of-12 from the floor in the fourth quarter to win by ten.  KSC has scored over 70 points in each of their home victories, both by double-figures, but has scored 55 or less (and fewer than 45 three times) in their three road games thus far.  Early on, it did not seem it would be a big offensive night for either team, but especially Keene State, who did not score for nearly seven minutes to open the game as the Raiders took a 5-0 lead.  Rivier started just 2-for-8 from the field, but the Owls could not connect on their first 13 shots of the night.  Lilly Krysinski snapped the drought at the 3:10 mark of the opening quarter to get KSC on the board, and Elizabeth Gonyea dropped in a three on the next possession to tie the game.  The Owls actually took a 9-7 lead, their first of the game, on two more Krysinski buckets in the final 1:34 of the quarter.
Though the offenses did not pick up in the second, Keene State commanded the second quarter in a big way.  Rivier's Hannah Muchemore scored 21 seconds into the period to tie the game at nine, but the Owls then held the visitors without a point for over nine minutes as they built a 12-point, 21-9 lead with 52 seconds left.  A bucket for Gonyea at the 7:12 mark had KSC up 15-9, and two more baskets on consecutive trips for Krysinski late in the quarter gave the Owls their half-high lead.  Jessica Carrier snapped Rivier's long drought, but the Raiders still found themselves trailing 22-11 at the break.  Krysinski had 10 of the Owls' 22 points, nearly equaling Rivier's total.

The second half proved to be the complete opposite of the first, with the two teams combining to put up nearly 100 points.  Fortunately for Keene State, the home team was able to maintain control most of the way, effectively turning back Rivier's rally attempts.  The Owls started the half on a small 6-2 burst in the opening four minutes to push their lead to 28-13, and it remained in the comfortable range when Durnford buried a triple with 4:10 left in the period to make it 31-17.  Rivier did get within single digits twice late in the third, but Keene State answered each time, with Murray connecting from deep at the 3:15 mark for a 34-22 Owl edge.  Rivier made it a seven-point (35-28) contest with 1:08 to go in the third, but another triple each for Murray and Durnford on the next two trips pushed the lead right back to 13 and it was 41-31 through three quarters.
The fourth alone saw the teams split a whopping 60 points.  Alexa Dufries and Lyric Grumblatt each canned triples in the initial three minutes as the Raiders chipped their deficit all the way down to four (43-39) with 7:21 remaining.  However, that is as close as they would get as Valerie Luizzi put up four in a row and Durnford hit another three in the next 1:10 as a quick burst of seven straight points had KSC up 11 again (50-39) with 5:54 to go.  Rylee Burgess and Durnford scored on consecutive trips down low a little over a minute later for a 14-point edge, and the Owls ultimately found plenty of offense in the end to pull out a victory.  KSC made eight of their last nine shots from the floor and 11-of-13 at the foul line, which were big factors in helping keep Rivier at bay despite the Raiders making 8-of-14 and 6-for-11 from three-point range in that span.  The Owls led by as many as 16 in the final two minutes to improve to 2-0 at home.

Murray paced the Owls with 18 points on the night, shooting 6-for-16 overall, and three assists.  Durnford added a career-high 16 points, shooting 6-for-12 from the floor and 3-of-4 from three-point range.  Burgess had an 11-point, 13-rebound double-double.

Rivier had five in double-figures and played four of their five starters 40 minutes.  Hannah Muchemore led the way with 14 points, but on 5-for-17 shooting (3-of-11 from three).  Anna Stenger added 13 points (4-9 FG, 2-4 3-PT) and Alexa Dufries 12 (4-14 FG, 2-8 3-PT).  The Owls held Raiders' leading scorer Lyric Grumblatt to just 11 points on 4-for-14 shooting (2-9 3-PT) and six turnovers.  Rivier has given up between 69 and 73 points in all four of their losses on the season.  They are 0-4 when scoring fewer than 70 points.

Inside the Paint

• Durnford's 16 points were a season-high and surpassed her previous career-best of 15 that she scored last February in a 62-54 win at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
• The teams combined for 14 made field goals in the first half.  KSC then made 16-of-31 (52 percent) in the second half and Rivier 16-for-35.
• The Owls have won five of six all-time meetings.  Tonight's was the first since 2012, Rivier's lone victory in the series.

Up Next

• Keene State travels to Williams College for the Shooting Touch Tournament this coming Friday and Saturday (December 2-3) and will take on the host Ephs (4-2) first on Friday night at 6:00 p.m.  The other matchup sees Babson College take on Bridgewater State University.  Williams has lost two of their last three, including a 70-56 final at Skidmore College this evening in a game they trailed by 21 points after three quarters.
• Rivier hosts Framingham State University (4-1) on Thursday night, December 1, at 7:00 p.m.